Robot Tells the Sad Truth About Working in the Games Industry

So, you want to work in the games industry? There are a few things you should know first.

I came across a humorous video today in a thread where people were discussing the now somewhat viral video made by a girl who wants to get a job at Valve. What hers and many other pleas from gaming industry hopefuls often miss is the kind of work that goes on in that world. It seems like the best piece of advice is to learn to make games on your own, and work at it until one of them can get noticed.

Anyway, I thought the video was full of a few megaton truth bombs, as cynical as it is. It’s a bit old, too, so forgive me if you’ve seen it already. Thoughts?

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

5 thoughts on “Robot Tells the Sad Truth About Working in the Games Industry”

  1. Hah. As much as I love video games, I never want to work on them. Since taking Computer Science in highschool I knew programming wasn’t for me. Sure, a little HTML comes in handy, but building something for 3 years just to see if it gets picked up isn’t my idea of fun.

    Making music for games however could be sweet. But even that would become more work than passion, and I just don’t see myself doing that for a living.

  2. So the video game companies expect new employees to already have work experience. Rhetorical: How does an aspiring software designer or graphics engineer get their foot in the door?

    Get experience somewhere else.

    Put it another way: “You better know how to swim, cause we’re throwing you in the lake.”

  3. It’s what my uncle told me word for word all those years ago. I can see a little of me in the cardboard robot. It’s sad that this is the situation of the games industry. I really hope it eventually changes, not because I still want in on it but for those who do. I suppose though that if you’re really lucky you could get to work with a good team but the chances of that are slim.

  4. A job is still a job, no matter what you’re doing. It’s my understanding that unless you’re a super genius designer, you’ll be doing lisence games for years before a big studio will take you on. Like DarkLight said, people want experience in their workers, which is pretty short-sighted in my opinion, but them’s the breaks.

  5. I hope the girl doesnt get hired. Seems like a cheap thing to me. Climb the ladder, no free handouts unless you have exceptional talent.

    I think everyone thinks how cool it would be to work int he industry, they just have the common problem of not knowing what it really takes. The above comments mostly say it all.

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